Friday, February 7, 2014

Rumor Rumor: Former Employees of the Cleveland Dance Club Say They Were Mistreated and Never Paid

Former employees at Rumor Night Club — the bumping, blue-lit dance joint on W. 6th — claim that the club’s owners neglected to compensate them for months of work and still refuse to do so. Employees walked out en masse in November, 2013, in protest. Despite repeated attempts to reclaim their wages and tips, they have yet to see a dime.

The four-man ownership team, which includes Reggie Corner, a former defensive back for the NFL’s Buffalo Bills — Maybe Pettine knows something!!! — and Reggie Burton, a Las Vegas wannabe tycoon, didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.

In a phone interview with Scene, one employee said that the owners’ brand of ownership consisted largely of periodic attendance, targeting attractive females and then wining and dining them in the VIP section with bottle service.

The weekend that the staff quit in November, “the owners told people that the staff had been fired for stealing,” one employee wrote in an email. This was blatantly untrue.

“Anytime the employees were asked to be paid for their time and labor it was as if it was an inconvenience for [the owners] to not only be having the conversation but also to be paying us,” the employee wrote.

A total 46 former workers have signed on to a document which requests more than $560,000 in unpaid wages and tips. They have filed a complaint with the Cleveland offices of the U.S. Department of Labor and are currently seeking legal representation.